Descriptions Of Battles Research Articles

P(r)ose of Pain

P(r)ose of Pain

Military Culture in Imperial China (review)

Reviewed by: Military Culture in Imperial China Peter Worthing Military Culture in Imperial China. Edited by Nicola Di Cosmo. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2009. 456 pp. $45.00 (cloth). Like many edited volumes, this book has its origins in an academic conference. In 2001 a group of scholars specializing in Chinese military [End Page 500] history convened at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, and offered their views on the topic "Military Culture in Chinese History." The conference produced papers dealing with many aspects of Chinese military culture, fourteen of which appear as chapters in this book. In his introduction, Nicola Di Cosmo provides a multifaceted definition of "military culture," which can include the system of conduct and behavior that regulated the actions of members of the military, the cultural forces that shaped strategic decision making of both civil and military elites, the values and traditions that determined a society's willingness to engage in war, and the presence of a literary or aesthetic tradition that deals with military events and personalities. In short, the essays, which range chronologically from the Zhou to the Qing, explore the manner in which the wu (military) has influenced the wen (civil) in Chinese history, and vice versa. The efforts of the editor and the contributors are successful for multiple reasons. First, several of the chapters shed important light on the issue of Chinese military history and culture, in particular by breaking down traditional barriers between the cultures of China's civil and military elites. Second, each author carefully links his or her research to the editor's introduction and the major themes of the work. This reflects an excellent job of editing and lends this collection of essays a coherence and continuity that is sometimes lacking in edited volumes. Third, while some regard the study of military history as an archaic tradition dominated by a "swords and saddles" approach, this volume reveals the broad research agendas of the contributors, whose studies of China's military tradition touch on literature, economics, politics, foreign relations, religion, and the law. A few examples will suffice to demonstrate the skillful and diverse manner in which the authors explore these definitions of military culture. In his chapter "Law and the Military in Early China," Robin D. S. Yates examines the close connection between the military and the development of civil law in China. Indeed, military officials typically meted out punishment to civilian transgressors as the military doubled as a police force. Dating back to the Warring States era, intellectuals and officials borrowed methods designed to promote military discipline and order among the increasingly large military units of the time and applied them to the growing populations of their states. The Legalists who built the powerful Qin state, which would unify China in 221 b.c., borrowed heavily from the military when devising methods to control the population at large. Well-known systems of collective responsibility and mutual protection, such as Lianzuo and Baojia, had their origins in military law. A period of important change on many fronts, [End Page 501] the Warring States era saw the expansion of military law into the realm of the administrative law of civil officials. Yates sees strong continuity throughout imperial China, with military law deeply embedded in civil law all the way through the Qing. David A. Graff's contribution, "Narrative Maneuvers: The Representation of Battle in Tang Historical Writing," takes a different approach by analyzing Tang dynasty texts in order to understand the attitudes of the men who wrote these histories. Sifting through battle descriptions from a variety of literary sources, Graff determines that the authors of these works, Confucian scholars with no military experience, showed scant interest in tactics, weapons, formations, or the experiences of the soldiers. Instead, they extolled the intelligence of the victorious commanders and attributed their success to cunning, craftiness, and ability to outsmart the enemy. According to Graff, the pervasive emphasis in Tang sources on the intellectual capabilities of the commander, rather than the technical details of combat, reflects in part the weight of literary tradition in China, but also the Confucian preference for the intellectual and abstract over the specialized skills of...

Η βυζαντινή πολεµική τακτική εναντίον των Φράγκων κατά τον 13ο αιώνα και η µάχη του Tagliacozzo

<font size="3"><span><span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'">Β</span><span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'">YZANTINE BATTLE TACTICS AGAINST THE FRANKS IN THE <span style="line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt">13th</span> CENTURY AND THE BATTLE OF TACLIACOZZO</span></span></font> <p><font size="3"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'">In 1268 Charles I of Anjou (1266-1285) confronted the army of Conradin (1254-1268) in Tagliacozzo, achieving a victory that established his position in Sicily. The prince of Morea </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'">William</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'">II of Villehardouin (1246-1278), took part in the battle with 400 knights levied from the principality. The <em>Chronicle of the Morea</em> attributes the victory of Charles I to William II’s advice to fight using similar tactics applied by the Byzantines and the Turks in the Greek mainland. </span></font><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'"><font size="3">The prince had acquired important experience of the war conditions in Morea and Greece before the battle of Tagliacozzo fighting against the Byzantines. Hereof, it is possible that William II took advantage of this experience and played an important role in the positive outcome of the battle, even though not as crucial as the <em>Chronicle</em> tries to ascribe to him. </font></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'"><font size="3">On the other hand, it is proven by close examination of other Byzantine and western sources of the period that the battle description of the <em>Chronicle</em> is an authentic testimony of the Byzantine battle tactics exercised against the Franks during the 13<sup>th</sup> century and especially the way these tactics were seen through the eyes of the latter.</font></span></p>

Tolstoy and ethical history: Another look at War and peace

This essay is concerned with Tolstoy's attitude to history – both its nature and its purpose – as that is revealed in War and peace. Tolstoy is critical of historians who, he believes, exaggerate the role of ‘great men’: exemplified in particular by Napoleon, such men are far less in control of events – are far less free – than they themselves might claim and than appears from such reports as constitute historical evidence. Vivid descriptions of battles (based partly on the author's own experience of military service) indicate an underlying chaos, of which only subsequent rationalisations can make any sense; and that is emblematic of the past more generally. Tolstoy's own focus on the sufferings of ‘ordinary’ people reveals his moral purpose – to examine the causes and conditions of man's continuing inhumanity to man. Despite an unresolved inconsistency regarding freewill and determinism, that introduction of an ethical dimension into historical studies may be of particular interest today.

Homeric Warriors and Battles: Trying to Resolve Old Problems

Homeric battle descriptions have long eluded satisfactory interpretation. Major problems include the mode of fighting, the role of commoners in battle, the extraordinary duration of battles lasting entire days, and the use of chariots. A better understanding is possible by taking the poet’s narrative techniques seriously (such as alternation between panoramic and scenic perspectives or common use of formulaic or type scenes). The latter, for example, help explain the “epic overextension” of battles by stringing together “normal battles,” corresponding to a familiar reality, and chaotic-fantastic flight and aristeia scenes, where gods and chariots are much more prominent than elsewhere.

The great crusader hero

Joinville’s Vie de Saint Louis is, in the least, a touching account of a hard campaign in the East, and the humanity and sanctity of a king. There are countless ways in which the reader can be touched, though, from excitement at battle descriptions, tenderness at the goodness of King Louis IX, or annoyance prompted by the imposing presence of the narrator himself. This essay seeks to study the author’s relation to the ideals of chivalry as exposed in Joinville’s work, and try to understand, if possible, who is the real hero in the Vie de Saint Louis.

Henry Guly, A history of accident and emergency medicine, 1948–2004, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, pp. xviii, 183, £45.00 (hardback 1-4039-4715-5).

A history of accident and emergency medicine, 1948–2004 traces the development in the UK of that specialty. “A&E is a curious specialty” in that whilst most specialties originated out of increasing sub-specialization, A&E was born out of the need to provide immediate and broad coverage of acute disease and injury in all body systems (p. xii). The author, Dr Henry Guly, has been, over the last three decades, a central figure in this developing area of health care, having held a consultancy in A&E since 1983. Drawing on the archives of the Royal Colleges, the British Association for Emergency Medicine, and other involved bodies—and on his own participation in and considerable personal knowledge of events—he meticulously documents the struggles within the NHS, with other specialties, and within the specialty itself, which gave rise to A&E as a medical specialty and the A&E as a health care institution. Guly begins by reviewing the state of casualty services between the 1948 founding of the NHS and the Platt report of 1962. The Report of the Standing Medical Advisory Committee on Accident and Emergency Services by Sir Harry Platt is cited as the crucial point at which “casualty” services began to be reconfigured around a more specific concept of “accident and emergency”. In the 1950s, postings in casualty departments were unpopular, and staffing was through rotas of attending GPs, house surgeons, and casualty officers with joint appointments in other specialties. Throughout the 1960s, orthopaedic surgery, general surgery and anaesthesia vied, often quite robustly, for leadership in this area of health care. However, in 1966, Senior Casualty Officers formed the Casualty Surgeons Association (now the British Association for Emergency Medicine). Familiar with the reality of the A&E, where care involved not only trauma but medical, paediatric, psychiatric and social problems, Senior Casualty Officers recognized that such work required specialist expertise not encompassed by any one of the traditional specialties. They lobbied for the creation of A&E positions within hospitals at the consultant level. Between 1971 and 2001, A&E became the fastest growing specialty in the UK, with consultant positions increasing from an initial 32 to just under 500. However, the battle for control of the specialty by its own members was a long one. Though Edinburgh established an FRCS in A&E in 1981 and, in England, a Faculty of Accident and Emergency Medicine was established in 1993, it was not until 2003 that the specialty gained full control over its own training programmes, exams, and entry requirements. Most of the book is concerned with detailed descriptions of individual battles lost and won in this long process. In the latter chapters of the book, Guly goes on to describe the implications for the specialty of changes in pathology, work patterns, and medical practice over the last thirty years. In particular, he singles out the expanding role of the A&E in primary care, increased acuity of medical problems, a relative decrease in trauma, limited availability of GPs out of hours, and an aging population. As Guly himself points out, his book has a narrow focus. It does not set out to examine the progress of the specialty in other countries, nor is it intended to address the larger questions of relations between health care demand, demographics, economics, technologies, etc. It is not intended as a social history of A&E, nor as a theorization of disciplinary formation. Rather, it is an internalist history dealing specifically with “the battle to get the specialty recognized” (p. xiii). As such, it is a careful documentation of precisely that. It should be of interest to practitioners within the specialty of A&E, and of value to those involved in research on emergency medicine, the NHS, and the development of disciplines in general.

Guy Debord: revolution in the service of poetry

Contents Introduction: A Reader without Qualities 1. Lost Children Origins Scratched Negatives and the Game of Appearances Passing through Lettrism Having Boarded at Night the Lightest of Crafts I wanted to Speak the Beautiful Language of My Century The Golden Age Bernard, Bernard, This Bloom of Youth Will Not Last Forever My Child, My Sister... No Turning Back Whatever Was Directly Experienced Has Been Distanced through Representation 2. An Art Without Works The End of Art Cartes du Tendre The Poetics of the Derive Psychogeography and Psychoanalysis Unitary Urbanism: Between Utopia and Architecture 3. The Light Brigade Means of Communication The Poetics of Revolution From Strasbourg to Seovia the Greater the Fame of Our Arguments, the Greater Our Obscurity The Last Guardian 4. Strategy The moving Surface of the River of Time Descriptions of Battle How to Be Disliked Refutations Considerations on an Assassination Against Interpretation Shadows, Secrets, and Mirrors The Game of War, Gondi Conclusion: Debord, Against Type Notes Bibliography Index

Testimony of a Twentieth Century Vietnamese Revolutionary: The Memoirs of Trần Trọng Khắc

Testimony of a Twentieth Century Vietnamese Revolutionary: The Memoirs of Trần Trọng Khắc My-Van Tran Much has been written about contemporary revolutionary movements in Vietnam. There has been a tendency among researchers to emphasise aspects of the anti-imperialist war against France and the United States, featuring military strategies and descriptions of battles. The majority of these describe struggles waged by heroes and heroines who lived within Vietnam. Some of them focus extensively on the victory of the communists, led by Hồ Chí Minh and General Võ Nguyên Giáp. A younger generation of Vietnamese, whether they live in the West or the East, have learned very little about those non-communist nationalists who lived and worked throughout Asia for the benefit of Vietnam. One of these patriots deserving scholarly attention is Trần Trọng Khắc (1884–1965), who was more than a bystander in the long and hard struggle for Vietnamese independence.Trần Trọng Khắc was an historical witness, as well as a participant in major events that shaped the first half of the twentieth century Vietnamese popular history. His name is closely linked to the Travel East Movement (Phong Trào Đông Du), spearheaded by the famous revolutionary Phan Bội Châu and later jointly with Prince Cuờng Để, a direct descendant of crown prince Cảnh and emperor Gia Long, the founder of the Nguyễn imperial dynasty. The movement encouraged the creation of Vietnamese intellectual talent by sending students to study in Japan, following the Japanese victory in the Russo-Japanese war.1 Trần Trọng Khắcwas the very first Vietnamese to leave his homeland for this purpose. Trần Trọng Khắc, known then as Nguyễn thức Canh, left Vietnam in 1905 and did not return until 1960. His memoirs record events from his overseas life, including his political experiences and personal feelings. He wrote during the last stage of his life in Vietnam (Nha Trang), when he desperately wished to spend time with his only son, who was eight months old when he left Vietnam, and was now fifty-five years of age. Khắc passed away in 1965, and his memoirs were put to print in 1971 by his son with the title Năm Mươi Bốn Năm Hải Ngoại [Fifty Four Years Overseas].2 This paper presents a personal document of a Vietnamese intellectual who not only played a part in the early twentieth century Vietnam’s anti-French nationalist movement, but also lived overseas throughout the periods French colonialism, the rise of Japanese power, the birth of the Republic of China and the tense politics of international affairs during the interwar period. The paper focuses on the parts of his memoirs that revealed the intricate politics of Franco-Japanese, Vietnamese-Japanese, and Chinese-Vietnamese relations, which affected him and his nationalist associates in their quest to bring independence to Vietnam. From this enquiry into Khắc’s experiences the paper also evaluates the usefulness of ego-documents to reconstruct the past and understand contemporary Vietnamese history. Khắc’s memoirs were written as a one hundred-page book, which was not divided into chapters as convention details. Instead it has fifty-six headlines which cover the corresponding details. The book is arranged chronologically to allow the reader to follow the development of his political life. It begins with his youth and the background of his political undertakings, then flows to his career paths, political and professional, including significant events that shaped his life in Japan, China and Germany. He ends his memoirs in China during the Japanese-Chinese conflict at the outbreak of the Pacific War which stranded him in China. Providing the precise dates of his political activities is at times difficult as most are not recorded. However, their sequences can be pieced together with the help of historical records, archival documents, security reports, memoirs, and diaries left by Khắc’s contemporaries. Background to his political undertakings Before exploring Trần Trọng Khắc’s memoirs, it is necessary to highlight Vietnam’s political...

Historical dictionary of Ukraine

The Historical Dictionary of Ukraine, Second Edition covers the history of Ukraine and its struggles through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 700 cross-referenced entries on population, geography, economy, politics, and culture; descriptions of institutions, cultural monuments, political parties, battles and wars; and biographical sketches of key individuals in politics, the arts and sciences, the church, and the military. This book is a vital reference tool for any researcher interested in the history of Ukraine.

The Buffalo Soldiers: A Narrative of the Black Cavalry in the West by William H. Leckie, Shirley A. Leckie

what thebook does not include should be tem pered by itssuccess in making an already com plex storyclear and advancing a compelling ar gument.Van Nuys's book should earn a place in graduate seminars on the West, immigration, race and ethnicity,and theProgressive era. The Buffalo Soldiers:A Narrative of theBlack Cavalry in the West, revised edition ByWilliam H. Leckie, with ShirleyA. Leckie University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 2003. Illustrations, photographs, maps, notes, bibliography, index. 336 pages. 29.95 cloth. Reviewed by Dwayne Mack Berea College, Berea, Kentucky After the Civil War, African Ameri can soldiershelped with U.S. effortsto se cure the western territories. The storyof thebuf falo soldiers, as thePlains Indians called them, is one of courage, perseverance, dedication, and tri umph, yet very few historians have examined theirrole in settlingthe western frontier. William H. Leckie and Shirley A. Leckie cap ture invivid detail thebraveryof thebuffalo sol diers during the IndianWars. Firstpublished in 1967,The BuffaloSoldiers re-examines theperiod from the end ofCivilWar to the early 1890s and re-createsthefierce battlesbetweenAfricanAmeri can detachmentsfrom the Ninth and TenthRegi ments of the U.S. Cavalry andNative Americans. The soldiers' duties carried them to areas of present-day New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, and Colorado, where they "relocated" Comanches, Kiowas, Kiowa-Apaches, Southern Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and otherNative American groups to reservations.The buffalo soldiers' dutieswere not limited tofighting Native Americans, how ever. They also apprehendedMexican bandits and revolutionaries and "border scum" such as boot leggers, cattle rustlers,horse thieves, "crooked government contractors, heartless Indian agents, and land-hungry homesteaders" (p. 18). The most notable aspect of this study is itsfluid and captivatingprose, particularlywhen theauthors describe thesoldiers' encounterswith therevered Native American leaders Victorio, Ger?nimo, Satank, and Santana. Their military duties gave these African American men the opportunity to "prove their manhood ina nation that,by and large,but par ticularly in theSouth, denigrated their worth as human beings" (p. 10).Despite having inadequate artillery, mounts, clothing, shelter,and food, the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry "had an outstanding record forfaithfulservice,with a desertion rate well below any units of the army" (p. 164). Be sidesbeing poorly equipped, thebuffalo soldiers encountered racial hostility from white soldiers and thecitizens theyprotected.At FortRichard son and Fort Concho in Texas, for example, white residents of the former slave state "were hardly likely towelcome anyone in a blue uni form,much less so if that uniform encased a black frame" (p. 71). A new epilogue examines thesoldiers' careers after the IndianWars. The authors posit that most men found itdifficult to adjust to civilian life because theJim Crow systemprevented them from"enjoying theirrightto fullcitizenship" (p. 278). This section also includes an overview of scholarship about buffalo soldiers and ofprivate and public effortstomemorialize the men since the first editionwas published. An impressive collection of photographs, maps, and drawings complements the narrative. 1?2 OHQ vol. 105, NO. 1 The photographsmake the members of the Ninth and Tenth Cavalries come alive again. The study isfilledwith graphic descriptions ofbattles and chases across mountain ranges and territories, and readersunfamiliarwith thegeography of the nineteenth-century western frontier may lose track of the narrative. Numerous maps and illustra tions,however,will aid readers in following the trailof the soldiers and theirfoes. The book has some shortcomings.The final chapter examines the recreational activities, edu cational activities,and familylifeof the soldiers. The newmaterial in thechapter is minimal, and itoffersonly a glimpse into thesoldiers' personal lives.The buffalo soldiersneed tobe seen asmen whose livestranscended their work. The study isanchored by solid research, es pecially the chapters examining theactivities of theNinth and Tenth Cavalry inTexas, theRed River War, and the VictorioWar. To support their research, the authors relyon military records from the National Archives, including informa tive correspondence between military officials, reports, and fort records. Their work is also en hanced by theuse ofNative American documen tary sources such as the Cheyenne-Arapaho, Kiowa, and IndianAgent andAgency files at the Oklahoma StateHistorical Society. Ihighlyrecommend thisbook toanyonewho is interested inmilitary,Native American, and AfricanAmerican history.Itofferssignificantin sight into the United States's successful effortsin settlingthe West and thecontributionsofAfrican Americans to that effort. As the authors note, "the storyof thebuffalo soldier isnot a chronicle ofblack history.It is insteada...

Inopportunité de la mélancolie pastorale : inachèvement, édition et réception des œuvres contre logique romanesque

Melancholy has been inherent in the pastoral discourse since ancient times. The fact that sixteenth- and seventeenth-century pastoral romances also display melancholy elements is rather commonplace. But melancholy was not allowed to predominate in Theocritus’ Idylls or Virgil’ Bucolics, as these authors celebrated an ideal of rest and peaceful leisure. Melancholy threatened and challenged the pastoral genre ; but was not overwhelming. On the contrary, melancholy plays an increasingly important part in modern pastoral romances such as Sidney’s Arcadia or d’Urfé’s L’Astrée. The first version of Arcadia refers to the model of the Terentian comedy, combining idyllic descriptions, sentimental narration, comic scenes and poetic interludes. As Sidney rewrote his novel, he suppressed his allusions to Terence, included more descriptions of battles and more allusions to deaths and defeats. These gave the novel a definitely melancholy slant as the novel eventually remained unfinished. A similar pattern can be seen in L’Astrée which is also left incomplete. In fact, most pastoral romances - Sannazaro’s Arcadia, Sidney’s Arcadia, d’Urfé’s L’Astrée, Belleforest’s La Pyrénée, Montemayor’s Diana, Cervantes’ La Galatea, Mercader’s Prado de Valencia and Lope de Vega’s Arcadia and Pastores de Belen - share similar traits : they all allow melancholy to become overbearing and are all unfinished. This article examines the connection between these two factors which might not be purely coincidental. Through a close study of the genesis of Arcadia and L’Astrée, it claims that incompletion is on Sidney’s and d’Urfé’s part both a consequence and a rejection of the increasing part played by the melancholy that threatened to overcome their works, in spite of the humanistic moral doctrine they supported. It also suggests an explanation as to why melancholy took on such an importance in pastoral romances in particular, by contrast with contemporary pastoral poery and drama.

Dazzling Likeness: Seeing Ekphrasis in Aeneid 10

What, exactly, identifies the ekphrastic at work? Some basic definitive properties can be agreed: ekphrasis is a descriptive trope that brings what it describes vividly before the imaginative gaze of its audience. It is through its vivid evocation of a scene or object unseen to this audience that the ekphrasis fulfils its purpose, and makes an emotional impact upon them. The affective power of ekphrasis thus draws its audience into the fictional world of its narrative, blurring the boundaries necessarily erected by its verbal frame, while at the same time the focus on crafted objects that we often see in ekphraseis (particularly in those on which scholars have predominantly chosen to concentrate)—and the break that an ekphrasis can create when it is interposed in a continuing narrative—serve to highlight the very createdness of this world.So ekphrasis is on the face of it a well-defined literary figure, easily recognisable both by its intrinsic attributes and by its effects. Nevertheless the boundaries of ekphrasis are not as clearly defined as the summary above might suggest. Ekphraseis of art objects have commanded the most scholarly attention: they allow for discussion of the fashioning of the text as well as its function and they conform to modern understandings of what an ekphrasis looks like. But defined in classical terms, ekphrasis covers a far broader descriptive territory than does verbal representation of representative art alone and can include, as well as descriptions of objets d'art, descriptions of battles, of cities, of persons, places, times and events, of plants and animals, and of festivals…

Tom Taylor's Civil War

Our hurly-burly sagas of war often overlook the deep connections between warriors and the families they left behind. In Taylor's Civil War, eminent Civil historian Albert Castel brings that familial connection back into sharp focus, reminding us again that soldiers in the field are much more than mere cogs in the machinery of war. A young Ohio lawyer, Thomas Taylor was a junior officer who fought under Sherman at Vicksburg and Chattanooga and on the march through Georgia, and his diary and letters contain vivid descriptions of numerous skirmishes and battles over four years. By interweaving Taylor's words with his own narrative, Albert Castel has fashioned a work on the Civil as engrossing as a novel; by also including letters from Taylor's wife, he has created a whole new dimension for viewing that conflict. Often written under adverse conditions, Taylor's descriptions of military encounters are filled with vivid details and perceptive observations. His passages especially provide new insight into the Georgia campaign including accounts of the Battles of Atlanta and Ezra Church and into the role of middle-echelon officers in both camp and combat. Castel's bridging narrative is equally dramatic, providing an overview of the fighting that gives readers invaluable context for Taylor's eyewitness reports. The book chronicles not only Taylor's military career but also the strains it placed on his marriage. Taylor had gone off to war both to fight for his Unionist beliefs and to enhance his reputation in his community, while his wife, Netta, was a peace Democrat whose letters constantly urged to return home. Their epistolary conversation-rare among Civil sources-reflects a relationship that was as politically charged as it was passionate. Taylor's passages also reveal his changing attitudes: from favoring strong measures against the rebels at the beginning of the war to eventually deploring the destruction he witnessed in Georgia. Tom Taylor's Civil War is a moving account of one man whose life was ripped apart by war and of the woman back home who remained his anchor through it all. Combining the best features of biography and autobiography, it paints a compelling picture of that conflict that will stir the heart as much as the imagination.

The Rhetoric of Combat: Greek Military Theory and Roman Culture in Julius Caesar's Battle Descriptions

Descriptions of battles in ancient authors are not mirrors of reality, however dim and badly cracked, but are a form of literary production in which the real events depicted are filtered through the literary, intellectual, and cultural assumptions of the author. By comparing the battle descriptions of Julius Caesar to those of Xenophon and Polybius this paper attempts to place those battle descriptions in their intellectual and cultural context. Here Caesar appears as a military intellectual engaged in controversies with experts in the Greek tradition of military theory-rejecting materialist strains of Greek thinking-and also as a Roman soldier whose military experience and cultural conceptions about how battles work could not be fully accommodated by Greek models. Caesar adapts from the Greeks an intellectual model of tactics based on physical metaphors, but adjusts Greek theory to Roman experience: Caesar's tactical physics ramifies from the crash-impetus-of the legionary charge rather than the push of the phalanx. Caesar also adapts from the Greeks a simplifying model of military psychology, adjusting a Greek binary scheme of morale into a three-level model to accommodate a Roman military ethos of steadiness in combat. Greek military thinking downplayed the role in battle of innate differences in courage between armies or nations, concentrating instead on tactics and stratagems; Roman culture encouraged Caesar to reject this dismissive view and elaborate a detailed understanding of the role of courage-virtus-in the mechanics of battle. The prominence of virtus in Caesar's battle descriptions illustrates its survival as an important Roman cultural norm and tempts speculation as to its historical consequences. Attempts to reconstruct ancient battles must take into account the cultural and intellectual traditions which guide ancient battle descriptions.

The Challenges of Conducting an Ethnographic Case Study of a United Kingdom Teacher Education Institution

Qualitative researchers engaging in systematic fieldwork encounter dilemmas that may illuminate cultural assumptions and enhance understanding of the contexts of studies. This article is based on a study of the extent to which the concept of competence in the everyday life of a teacher education institution in the United Kingdom (UK) showed sensitivity to the need to prepare future teachers as critical, autonomous professionals. I conducted ethnographic research in this institution and wrote a case study about the experience. The study was particularly imbued with a transformative approach to competence, the need to prepare teachers as agents of change of educational inequality in which certain groups whose cultural patterns differ from those in the school systems are systematically kept off the main tracks of the educational system. Transformative educational practices in teacher education involve teaching technical skills and competencies and encourage future teachers to reflect critically on the impact of their actions and perceptions on the achievement of pupils from different cultural backgrounds. I (Canen, 1984) undertook a similar study in Brazil in which I pinpointed practices contradictory to transformative approaches in teacher education in two teacher education institutions I used as case studies. The multicultural nature of the UK and Brazil (Canen, 1995) was a framework for reflection on preparing teachers to deal with cultural diversity. In this article, I focus on the ethical dilemma I encountered during an ethnographic study in the UK. I first deal with issues related to ethnographic studies and then describe the negotiations in the fieldwork and the constraints imposed on it. The relevance of these matters in qualitative research in teacher education is twofold: They show the contradictions and difficulties qualitative researchers likely encounter conducting research in a teacher education institution. In this study, they illustrate cultural assumptions informing the concept of competence itself, which might be detrimental to the enhancement of critical thought in a teacher education institution. Ethnographic Case Studies: Some Considerations in the Literature Denzin and Lincoln (1994) define case study as the study of things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or interpret phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them (p. 2). ... coupled with the presence of a gendered, multiculturally situated researcher (p. 11) throughout the process of research, from adoption of the theoretical framework and formulation of questions to the strategies of inquiry and interpretation of data. Fieldwork procedures and theoretical ideas are two sides of the same coin (Wolcott, 1992, p. 6). Fieldwork procedures are paradigms of interpretation [put] into motion (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994, p. 14). Case study is a choice of object to be studied (Stake, 1994, pp. 236-237). Ludke and Andre (1986) point out that a case is a unity inside a wider system, an instance such as an event, a person, a group, a school, an institution, or a program to be intensely and systematically studied. Case researchers seek out both what is common and what is particular about the case, the end results being generally something unique (Stake, 1994, p. 238). An ethnographic case study uses techniques such as observation, interviews, analysis of documents, and others to discover the cultural knowledge that people hold in their minds, how it is employed in social interaction and the consequences of its employment (Spindler & Spindler, 1992, p. 70). Even though some scholars recommend the description of conflicts of values and ethical challenges in ethnographic studies, others point out its low frequency. Punch (1994) notes that it would be inappropriate for the `scientist' to abandon objectivity and detachment in recounting descriptions of personal involvement and political battles in the field setting (p. …

Psychiatric Malpractice: Stories of Patients, Psychiatrists, and the Law

Psychiatric Malpractice: Stories of Patients, Psychiatrists, and the Law

The Civil War World of Herman Melville (review)

BOOK REVIEWS8 1 Ironclads and Paddlers. By Ian Marshall. (Charlottesville, Va.: Howell Press, Inc., 1993. Pp. 108. $3495) In some ways, the title of Ian Marshall's latest work is misleading. Although Ironclads and Paddlers does in fact discuss those particular ship types, it goes far beyond and offers what amounts to an introductory survey of nineteenthcentury naval development. The author, an accomplished artist in his own right, brings the subject to life in almost forty original paintings depicting representative vessels ofthe era in natural settings. The paintings lend a certain grace to these proud ships often missing from the period photographs and drawings included in similar works. The majority of the book examines the evolution of warship construction over the course ofthe century. Great Britain's Royal Navy receives the most attention , althoughAmerican, French, Italian, and German designs merit mention when necessary. Marshall also includes biographical sketches of Lord Thomas Cochrane and Lord John "Jackie" Fisher as representative agents ofthe changes taking place from the Napoleonic wars to the introduction ofthe dreadnoughts. Finally, he briefly discusses the importance of overseas bases to the steam navies of the nineteenth century, using Bermuda and Malta as examples. Marshall describes his work as "the celebration of an era," noting that "it makes no claim to break new ground" (io). Still, Ironclads and Paddlers is more than just another picture book for the living-room coffee table. Never intended as a definitive work, it nonetheless offers an engaging and informative overview of the period. The author draws on an extensive, but not exhaustive, range of scholarly works for his text. Even though he might have included such classics as Frank M. Bennett's The Steam Navy of the United States or James Phinney Baxter's The Introduction ofthe Ironclad Warship, those interested in further reading will find the appended bibliography a useful point of departure. Kurt Hackemer Texas A&M University The Civil War World ofHerman Melville. By Stanton Garner. (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1993. Pp. 544. $29.95.) By the time Herman Melville brought out Battle Pieces andAspects ofthe War in August 1 866, his contemporary literary reputation had been declining for over fifteen years. From 1 846 to 1 857, he had written only narrative prose and occasional lyrics composed specifically for his fiction but no other poetry before Battle Pieces, a poetic record of the Civil War that also constituted Melville's futile plea to restore national unity without rancor or vengeance. Most of the poems were written long enough after the incidents on which they were based to have benefited from the poet's pondering over the circumstances and events that inspired them. In The Civil War World ofHerman 82CIVIL WAR HISTORY Melville Stanton Garner, a retired naval officer and English professor (including ayear as visiting professoratAnnapolis)—and president-elect ofthe Melville Society for 1995—traces the composition of the poems in Battle Pieces from their historical sources through Melville's ambivalent response to aspects of the conflict so as "to suggest what he intended them to accomplish" (443). Although Garner's naval experience gives a special authenticity to his descriptions of ships and maritime battles, all of his depictions are rendered in sharp, convincing detail. Twenty-five vintage photographs complement the text, which would also have been well served by a few maps to facilitate the location ofsites and routes. Melville participated directly in neither the government nor the military during the war, but while visiting a cavalry encampment near Washington in April 1 864, he did accompany a large scouting party for a few days when reports of Mosby's Rangers in the vicinity called for an expedition to find and harass them (310). Garner describes this adventure and Melville's poetic adaptation of it in "The Scout toward Aldie." To explore Melville's frame of mind through the war years, the author situates him amidst a network of family and acquaintances, many of whom held governmental or military positions. After observing that politics were a binding force among American families at the time (2), he identifies many ofMelville's relatives and associates to suggest the intricate social and political affiliations that, in myriad different ways, are likely...

Holding the line: the Third Tennessee Infantry, 1861-1864

FLAVEL C. BARBER's memoir of his service with the Third Tennessee provides a rare contemporary history of a Confederate regiment. Major Barber's after the surrender of Fort Donelson spurred him to take pen in hand. What began as a way to while away the tedious hours of imprisonment on Johnson's island in Lake Erie became a poignant, candid, yet unsentimental account of the life of a soldier at war. Of special value for Civil War scholars and buffs are Barber's vivid descriptions of battles, notably the siege of Fort Donelson and the Confederate victory at Chickasaw Bayou, in which he highlights the Third Tennessee's crucial role in defeating William T. Sherman. Robert H. Ferrell introduces Barber and details the formation of the regiment. A full regimental roster, a rarity among Confederate units, also is included.

Sounding Out Ecphrasis: Art and Text in Catullus 64

The term ecphrasis in ancient doctrine denoted any poetic or rhetorical description, including descriptions of landscape (topothesia), buildings, battles, and storms. In recent critical idiom it has been narrowed to refer specifically to literary descriptions of visual works of art. This critical focus indicates the interest of the problem of comparing the two media of literature and the visual arts. The great benefit of considering ‘ecphrasis’ in the modern sense is that it forces us to confront both the nature of the visual artistic medium and that of the verbal medium describing it.